The goals of our research are to: a) apply biostatistical methods to the etiology of cancers and b) develop mathematical methods to elucidate biological mechanisms relevant to cancer biology. Our studies on the etiology and pathobiology of cancer have been directed at both the organismic and cellular levels. At the organismic level research on the roles of genetic and environmental factors has led to the formation of mathematical models that can accomodate massive sets of data and at the same time have heuristic and predictive value. At the cellular level research on populations of cells, on the interaction of viruses and cells and on subcellular components and macromolecules has led again to inductive models with biological meaning for future data collection. Our research on such diverse problems as hereditary cancer, diet and cancer, hepatitis virus and cancer, genetic mapping, and plasmid inheritance has been facilitated by the application of biomathematical, statistical, and computational techniques. The increased and systematic application of these procedures can be expected to illuminate major problems in cancer research in the direction of a synthesis of our knowledge of cancer biology.